The VSO s 2014/2015 Season Opening Weekend Featuring acclaimed pianist, Inon Barnatan

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1 VSO MEDIA ROOM Photos Bios Info Media Contact: Caroline Márkos x266 For Immediate Release September 12, 2014 MEDIA RELEASE The VSO s 2014/2015 Season Opening Weekend Featuring acclaimed pianist, Inon Barnatan Vancouver, BC The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra s 96 th concert season begins with its first performances on Saturday, September 27 th and Monday, September 29 th, with concerts programmed to start the new season off with a bang. The evenings open with VSO Music Director Bramwell Tovey conducting Canadian composer Kelly- Marie Murphy s A Thousand Natural Shocks. A composer said to have a musical voice which is breathtaking (Kitchener-Waterloo Record), imaginative and expressive (The National Post), and a pulse-pounding barrage on the senses (The Globe and Mail), Murphy says that the idea behind the piece is that change and new beginnings can be shocking and stressful, but also full of fantastic challenges that are ultimately as rewarding as they are necessary. Recently announced as the New York Philharmonic s first-ever Artist-in-Association, pianist Inon Barnatan makes his VSO debut playing Brahms colossal Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor. Hailed as A player of uncommon sensitivity by the New Yorker, and a true poet of the keyboard, refined, searching [and] unfailingly communicative by the Evening Standard in London, Barnatan s performances on the VSO s opening weekend promise to be nothing short of electrifying. Like most of Brahms other large-scale works, he laboured in writing his first piano concerto taking almost four years to complete it. A piece which started out as a full scale symphony, then turned into a sonata for two pianos, finally taking its concerto form after years of indecisiveness, the Piano Concerto No. 1 was to Brahms one of his greatest achievements. However, the public perceived it differently. At the premier in 1859 it seemed to fall on deaf ears and there was little, if any, enthusiasm about it. Confusion would be a better way to describe the audience s perception of the piece as this piano concerto, and its emotional directness, was not the norm and heaven forbid that the status quo should

2 be upset. Regardless of how it was perceived in the 19 th century, today the suppleness and elegance of the piece, mixed with its forthright enthusiasm makes it an audience favourite all over the world. To close the program, Maestro Tovey leads the orchestra in one of the most famous classical pieces of all time, Richard Strauss s Also sprach Zarathustra. Most famously known as the music for filmmaker Stanley Kubrick s opening sequence in his movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), the piece was written by Strauss to musically depict the idea of a super-man, and an idea of the evolution of the human race, from its origins, through the various phases of development, religious as well as scientific. After decades of this piece s opening sequence being used as a pop culture musical idiom, to hear this music played live by the VSO is not an experience that one forgets quickly. CONCERT INFORMATION GOLDCORP MASTERWORKS GOLD The VSO s Opening Weekend! SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 8pm, Orpheum Theatre GOLDCORP Series Sponsor CKNW AM TALK 980 Radio Sponsor Bramwell Tovey conductor Inon Barnatan piano* KELLY MARIE MURPHY A Thousand Natural Shocks BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor* R. STRAUSS Also Sprach Zarathustra TICKET INFORMATION: Tickets: $25-$90 (senior, student, and subscriber discounts available) Tickets available online at or by calling VSO Customer Service at BIOGRAPHIES Bramwell Tovey, conductor GRAMMY and Juno award-winning conductor/composer Bramwell Tovey was appointed Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in Under his leadership the VSO has toured to China, Korea, across Canada and the United States. Mr. Tovey is also the Artistic Adviser of the VSO 2

3 School of Music, a state-of-the-art facility and recital hall which opened in downtown Vancouver in 2011 next to the Orpheum, the VSO s historic home. His tenure has included complete symphony cycles of Beethoven, Mahler, Brahms as well as the establishment of an annual festival dedicated to contemporary music. In 2018, the VSO s centenary year, he will become the orchestra s Music Director Emeritus. In the season Mr. Tovey will make guest appearances with several US orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Kansas City Symphony. In Europe he will perform with the BBC Philharmonic and the Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester and he will travel to Australia on two separate occasions for engagements with the symphonies of Melbourne and Sydney. During the season Mr. Tovey s guest appearances included the BBC and Royal Philharmonics, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Boston Symphony, Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, and the Toronto Symphony. In the summer of 2014 he made his debut with the Chicago Symphony at the Ravinia Festival. In 2003 Bramwell Tovey won the Juno Award for Best Classical Composition for his choral and brass work Requiem for a Charred Skull. Commissions include the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Toronto Symphony, and Calgary Opera who premiered his first full length opera The Inventor in A recording of the work by the VSO with UBC Opera and the original cast will be issued on the Naxos label in Earlier in 2014 his trumpet concerto, Songs of the Paradise Saloon, was performed by the LA Philharmonic with Alison Balsom as soloist, who will also perform the work with the Philadelphia Orchestra in December A talented pianist as well as conductor and composer, he has appeared as soloist with many major orchestras including the New York, Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, St Louis, Toronto, and Royal Scottish orchestras. In the summer of 2014 he played and conducted Gershwin s Rhapsody in Blue at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Phil and in Saratoga with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has performed his own Pictures in the Smoke with the Melbourne and Helsingborg Symphonies and the Royal Philharmonic. Maestro Tovey was Music Director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra from 1989 to 2001 where he founded the WSO s now celebrated New Music Festival. From he was Music Director of Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, leading tours of Europe, the USA, China, and Korea. He opened Luxembourg s Salle Philharmonie with the world première of Penderecki s 8 th Symphony. Mr. Tovey is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and holds honorary degrees from the universities of British Columbia, Manitoba, Kwantlen and Winnipeg. In 2013 he was appointed an honorary Officer of the Order of Canada for services to music. In August 2011 he was described by Musical America as one of the most versatile and charismatic musicians in the world. 3

4 Kelly-Marie Murphy, composer With music described as breathtaking (Kitchener-Waterloo Record), imaginative and expressive (The National Post), a pulse-pounding barrage on the senses (The Globe and Mail), and Bartok on steroids (Birmingham News), Kelly-Marie Murphy s voice is well known on the Canadian music scene. She has created a number of memorable works for some of Canada s leading performers and ensembles, including the Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras, The Gryphon Trio, James Campbell, Shauna Rolston, the Cecilia and Afiara String Quartets, and Judy Loman. Dr. Murphy s music has been performed around the world by outstanding soloists and ensembles, and has had radio broadcasts in over 22 countries. Her music has been interpreted by renowned conductors such as Sir Andrew Davis, David Brophy, Bramwell Tovey, and Mario Bernardi. Her music has been heard in iconic concert halls, such as Carnegie Hall in New York, The Mozarteum in Salzburg, and The National Concert Hall in Dublin. Besides many academic scholarships awarded in Canada and England, Dr. Murphy has also won prizes for her music, dating back to She won first prize and the People s Choice Award at the CBC Young Composer s Competition in 1994 (string quartet category); received 2 honorable mentions in the New Music Concerts competition in 1995; earned fifth place at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris in 1996 for her first orchestra piece, From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat...; was awarded first and second prizes in the Maryland Composer s Competition at Loyola College in Baltimore, 1998; won third place in the Alexander Zemlinsky Prize for Composition in 1999 for her work, Utterances; won first prize in the International Horn Society s Composer s Competition, 2001, for her work, Departures and Deviations; and in 2003 won first prize for her harp concerto, And Then At Night I Paint the Stars in the Centara Corporation New Music Festival Composer s Competition. Dr. Murphy has completed short residencies at the Snowbird Institute for the Arts, Utah, with Joan Tower; Tapestry Music Theatre/Canadian Opera Company, Toronto; resound Festival of Contemporary Music, Edmonton; Strings of the Future International String Quartet Festival, Ottawa; Soundstreams/Encounters, Toronto; and at the Banff Centre for the Arts. In 2004 Dr. Murphy was honored with The Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Calgary, and in 2005 as the Roger D. Moore Distinguished Visitor in Composition from the University of Toronto. Dr. Murphy was granted the distinction of Honorable Mention in the 2008 Barlow Prize for composition. From 2006 to 2008, she served as composer-in-residence to the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. Kelly-Marie Murphy was born on a NATO base in Sardegna, Italy, and grew up on Canadian Armed Forces bases all across Canada. She began her studies in composition at the University of Calgary with William Jordan and Allan Bell, and later received a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Leeds, England, where she studied with Philip Wilby. After living and working for many years in the Washington D.C. area where she was designated an alien of extraordinary ability by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service, she is now based in Ottawa. 4

5 Inon Barnatan, piano Hailed as a true poet of the keyboard, refined, searching [and] unfailingly communicative (Evening Standard, London), the pianist Inon Barnatan has been named as the New York Philharmonic s first Artist in Association, a major three-season appointment highlighted by multiple concerto and chamber collaborations with the orchestra. Equally commanding in recital, the Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient s recent Kennedy Center solo debut prompted the Washington Post to marvel: Although there was firecracker technique on display, it was Barnatan s intelligence, musicality and story-telling ability that most impressed. His 2013 recording of Schubert s late sonatas reveals superior playing, in which penetrating musicianship, compelling interpretive insight, and elegant pianism achieve near perfect equilibrium (BBC Music magazine), while his solo album Darknesse Visible was designated one of the Best of 2012 by the New York Times. As The Pianist magazine confirms, Barnatan is one of the finest musicians. His new CD shows piano playing of the highest order. You don t notice his fingerwork, you simply immerse yourself in the sound he produces and you know that there are no technical limits to what he can do. To launch his unprecedented new partnership with the New York Philharmonic, Barnatan makes his subscription debut playing Ravel s concerto under Alan Gilbert. In repertoire ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Andrew Norman s Suspend (2014), the coming season also brings debuts with orchestras including the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic under Susanna Mälkki, the Orchestre National de France led by James Gaffigan, the Vancouver Symphony with Bramwell Tovey, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec. The pianist looks forward to repeat engagements with the Milwaukee Symphony with Edo de Waart, Ulster Orcehstra with Rafael Payare, and, under Matthias Pintscher s leadership, the Atlanta Symphony, where Barnatan and the orchestra recently achieved a musical coming-together at a level one rarely experiences in a concerto (Arts ATL). In recital, he performs at London s Wigmore Hall and makes solo debuts at Chicago s Harris Theater and the Celebrity Series of Boston, to which he returns for the culmination of a U.S. tour with his exclusive recital partner, cellist Alisa Weilerstein. Other upcoming chamber highlights include New York City dates with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Jerusalem Quartet, Howland Chamber Music Circle, and members of the New York Philharmonic, with whom he performs Dvorák s piano quintet. This follows a full summer that takes the pianist back to the Hollywood Bowl for Mozart with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and to London s Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, where he conducts Beethoven from the keyboard on a program featuring narration by Simon Callow. Barnatan also makes solo recital debuts at Warsaw s International Chopin Festival and the Jacobins festival in Toulouse, besides performing at the Aspen, Spoleto USA, La Jolla Music Society, and Santa Fe Chamber Music festivals. In recent seasons, Barnatan showcased music from Darknesse Visible by Ravel, Debussy, Ronald Stevenson, and Thomas Adès in recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam s Concertgebouw, and such U.S. venues as the Kennedy Center, Ravinia Festival, and New York s 92 nd Street Y, where the New York Times admired his furious flair and declared: Mr. Barnatan can do almost anything with tone. Heart wrenching. Other highlights included a 16-city U.S. tour with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and collaborations with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Bramwell Tovey at the Hollywood Bowl, the National Arts Centre Orchestra under Pinchas Zukerman, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Barnatan stepped in at the last minute to perform concertos with both the Atlanta and Cincinnati Symphonies, proving himself an engaging artist who communicates joy as he plays 5

6 (Cincinnati Enquirer). Besides giving duo recitals with Alisa Weilerstein in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, the pianist also embarked on a solo tour of South Africa, where he made multiple concerto and recital appearances. Barnatan has long proven himself a born Schubertian (Gramophone magazine) who has drawn comparisons with Schnabel (Seen and Heard International). His most recent album, a celebration of Schubert s late piano sonatas, was released by Avie in September 2013 to a chorus of approval from BBC Music, Gramophone, and Sinfini Music, which admired the dazzling range of pianistic colors and textures he used to trace the music s underlying emotional narrative. Reflecting his interest in musical storytelling, the pieces on Barnatan s previous solo album, Darknesse Visible, were thematically linked, all being inspired by literary works. The disc was chosen as Instrumentalist CD of the Month by BBC Music magazine and as one of the top classical recordings of 2012 by the New York Times, in which Anthony Tommasini explained, The thoughtful programming is typical for this insightful musician. But Mr. Barnatan s extraordinary playing is what makes this release so rewarding. The pianist s solo album debut, a 2006 Schubert recording from Bridge Records, was pronounced musicianship of the highest caliber by London s Evening Standard, while Gramophone recommended the disc in its award issue, applauding his sensitivity, poise, and focus. Barnatan also teamed up with violinist Liza Ferschtman for a recording of works by Beethoven and Schubert, the second of which impressed All Music Guide as a magical listening experience. On relocating to the United States in 2006, Barnatan was quick to make his mark on the American music scene. He won a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant just three years later, and has performed with most of the nation s foremost ensembles, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Dallas, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. He has appeared at key venues, among them New York s Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and 92 nd Street Y, and San Francisco s Herbst Theater, Philadelphia s Kimmel Center, Washington's Kennedy Center and Boston s Jordan Hall. Internationally, Barnatan has performed with such leading orchestras as the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Deutsche Symphonie Orchester Berlin, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Shanghai Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestra of New Europe. He makes frequent appearances at the Wigmore Hall and Concertgebouw, besides performing at such illustrious venues as the Paris Louvre, Berlin s Philharmonie, London's South Bank Centre, and Frankfurt s Alte Oper. Barnatan regularly commissions and performs music by living composers, who include Thomas Adès, George Benjamin, George Crumb, Avner Dorman, James MacMillan, Matthias Pintscher and Kaija Saariaho. Next season, he looks forward to premiering a solo work written for him by Sebastian Currier. Highly sought-after as a chamber musician, the pianist was a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center s CMS Two program from 2006 to 2009, and continues to perform regularly on CMS programs both in New York and on tour. In 2009 he curated The Schubert Project, a CMS festival of the composer s late works that has since been reprised at the Library of Congress, the Concertgebouw, and the Festival de México, Barnatan s rigorous festival schedule includes a broad range of concerts at the Spoleto Festival USA, the Aspen and La Jolla Music Festivals, the Santa Fe and Seattle Chamber Music Festivals, and the Verbier, Delft, Bergen, Mumbai and Heidelberg festivals overseas. In 2008 he received the Andrew Wolf Memorial Award, conferred every two years on a pianist for exceptional contributions to chamber music. 6

7 Born in Tel Aviv in 1979, Inon Barnatan started piano at the age of three and made his orchestral debut at eleven. His studies connect him to some of the last century s most distinguished pianists and teachers: he studied with Professor Victor Derevianko, himself a pupil of Russian master Heinrich Neuhaus, before studying with Maria Curcio a student of the legendary Artur Schnabel and Christopher Elton at London s Royal Academy of Music, and has since been taught and mentored by Leon Fleisher. In 2006 Barnatan moved to New York City, where he currently resides in a converted Harlem warehouse. For media inquires, or to interview any of our esteemed soloists, please contact the VSO s PR Associate, Caroline Márkos at x266 caroline@vancouversymphony.ca -VSO- 7